Following his feature film debut in the early Nineties, Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron established a career that became eclectic and multi-cultural, standing alongside the works of fellow filmmakers as Alejandro G. Inarritu and Ang Lee (to name a few). Cuaron has tackled such genres as children's fantasy (1995's A Little Princess, 2004's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), dystopic science-fiction (2006's Children of Men), an update of a Charles Dickens' novel (1998's Great Expectations), and space thriller-drama (2013's Gravity, which won him Oscars for editing and directing).
Since the mid-2000s, however, he had reportedly been developing an original story based on his childhood in Mexico City, particularly a story told from the perspective of the women who raised him. Besides being the first Spanish-language film he's made since 2001's Y Tu Mama Tambien, the film that has become Roma was a deeply personal and "essential" project for him.
Says Cuaron,
There are periods in history that scar societies and moments in life that transform us as individuals. Time and space constrain us, but they also define who we are, creating inexplicable bonds with others that flow with us at the same time and through the same places. Roma is an attempt to capture the memory of events that I experienced almost fifty years ago. It is an exploration of Mexico's social hierarchy, where class and ethnicity have been perversely interwoven to this date and, above all, it's an intimate portrait of the women who raised me in a recognition of love as a mystery that transcends space, memory and time.
For me, this is one of the most deeply personal and remarkable films I have ever seen.
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| Yalitza Aparicio (far right) in Roma |
THE STORY
In a recent interview with filmmaker and friend Inarritu (listen here), Cuaron explained he was not interested in telling a semiautobiography of his own life. In fact, as he stated, "there's very little of myself in the film." Rather, he bravely shifted the perspective to that of his family's maid. Here, she is named Cleo (dedicated to Cuaron's real-life maid, named Liboria "Libo" Rodriguez), an indigenous teenage woman (of Mixtec heritage), who becomes a second mother to the children of her employers. This is not so much a story centered on the fears and lives and worries of the children she looks after (although one particular child occasionally gives interesting "premonitions" foreshadowing certain events to come) as much as it is on Cleo's and that of the family matriarch, Sofia, who is, at times, stern, but clearly shows understanding and empathy.
It's nearly impossible to describe this film in just a few words. To say it's shot in beautiful black-and-white, and that it features many of Cuaron's filmmaking trademarks (i.e., long tracking shots, amazing scenery), an indiginous language that is bracketed in English subtitles (whereas Spanish is subtitled without brackets), and remarkable performances from its cast of mostly non-professional actors (especially first-timer Yalitza Aparicio, who plays Cleo, and Marina de Tavira, who plays Sofia) is putting it lightly. (Cuaron even includes a clip from a film that apparently inspired Gravity.)
This is a truly rare case where the images onscreen speak for themselves, due, in part, to the fact that the scale and scope are really from an emotional standpoint. One such image worth noting, however, is the opening shot of floor tiles, covered in water, with the reflection of a sky and an overhead plane going by. (Look at the image below.)
The most thought-provoking films of 2018 focused on the theme and fear of children growing up or being raised in an ever-changing world. In the case of Roma, the fear involves growing up in the world (partly against the backdrop of the Corpus Christi Massacre of 1971) in the wake of damaging and negative impacts of abandonment and betrayal (not to mention heartbreak and trauma), specifically when it comes to maternity. And yet, Sofia, for one, tries to assure her children they will still be together as a family. This notion is poignantly visualized later in the film, signifying unconditional love and a beautiful reminder that familial love (blood-related or not) is still present. You'd really have to see it to believe it.
NON-ARTIFICIAL AND UNCOMPROMISING
Cuaron was the only person behind-the-scenes who knew the script, which his actors and crew would receive bit by bit each day of shooting. Hence, the film was shot in sequence, resulting in a very introspective and organic process. Cuaron explained it like this:
In the past when writing my films, I have always enjoyed the collaboration of other writers and submitting our screenplay to the razor-sharp eyes of trusted filmmakers in a very disciplined and analytic process of re-writes. But in Roma, I feared the scrutiny of this process would bring artificiality to the result and taint my goal of preserving the integrity and purity of these memories; translating them into a film honoring time and space.
In looking to my past, I wasn’t interested in making a film wrapped under the warm blanket of nostalgia. I wanted to make a film about the past seen from the prism of my understanding of the present, and through it, examine my family, my city, my country and our world at large… and above all things, the random nature of existence.
With this approach and philosophy in mind and thoroughly in tact, Cauron has succeeded in bringing his original and deeply personal vision to cinematic life. And I couldn't be more in awe of his work, along with that of his cast and crew.
One last thing. Generally, I have had qualms about viewing Netflix-produced films in theaters, as I consider streaming projects contrary to the incomparable moviegoing experience. The film's ten recent Academy Award nominations, however, persuaded me to see what all the buzz was about. Only one theater in my area (which specifically shows arthouse and indie films) has been screening Roma for the last few weeks, while other chains like AMC and Regal refuse to screen it due to the fact that Netflix doesn't adhere to the traditional 90-Day theatrical release window and released Roma on its platform one month after it hit theaters (read here and here).
If Netflix is your only option to see this film, though, by all means use it. However, I highly implore any filmgoer or cinephile, if Roma is playing at your nearest movie theater, this is a film that must be seen on the big screen, especially with a booming and immersive surround sound and stunning cinematography.
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